Wednesday, January 9, 2013

2013 PGA Merchandise Show Preview

The 2013 PGA Merchandise Show will be coming up January 23rd thru the 26th in Orlando. I will be there along with various other ‘internet golf celebrities.’

The actual show does not start until Thursday the 24th. However, Wednesday the 23rd is the Demo Day at Orange County National.

The demo day is a blast as the OCN driving range is truly one of a kind.

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The entire range is filled with different tents for different vendors. The PUMA/Cobra Golf tend is usually the largest of the bunch with bartenders, a DJ spinning records and all sorts of hullabaloo. The Demo Day has room for all types of equipment vendors from drivers to fairway woods to wedges to putters. This year I will drive down to OCN instead of going to the Orange County Convention Center and taking the shuttle over to OCN.

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Demo Day will be ‘fun day’ for me as I will test out the new equipment and meet friends and contacts in the industry. I will take some notes as to what equipment I liked and investigate it further at the actual show. Last year, we had perfect weather for the PGA Show. But, that caused them to run out on water and food, so you may want to supply yourself to keep hydrated. The Demo Day is much like going to watch a Tour event. It seems like you’re not walking much, but you have to account for having to walk on grass and going up and down hills and having to walk around stuff which can tire a person out rather quickly.

I hope to test out the new Edel Golf irons

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The new irons are forged and designed with much more bounce than your standard irons. The idea is much like their wedge design, fit the bounce angle to the golfer’s swing and attack angle in order to make the divot smaller. That will in turn help with distance control which is vital to great iron play.

The good news is that most of the OEM’s are displaying their new products as they are at the end of their 2-year product cycle. Obviously, companies like Taylor Made do not utilize a 2-year product cycle. This year I have not been paying as close attention to the upcoming product designs, so I really don’t know what company will have which. However, you can rest assured that the bigger OEM’s like Taylor Made, Titleist and PING will have the busiest tents. When the RBZ model came out, Taylor Made had a grandstand for people to wait in line. You will also see a variety of long distance drivers hitting balls for certain companies using their equipment. For that, I may bring my Casio out to video their swings.

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Thursday will be Tweet-Up 3.0. It will be held at the Brick House Tavern which is right down I-Drive from the Orange County Convention Center. Here were just a few people off the top of my head that made it to the Tweet-Up last year (besides myself):

Dave Wedzik (www.golfevolution.com)
Erik Barzeski aka iacas (www.golfevolution.com)
Mike McLoughlin aka mvmac (www.thesandtrap.com)
Bobby Siravo (www.ifitgolf.com)
John Dochety aka Lake1926
Sara Dickson (www.saradickson.com)
Jason Sutton (www.golfgurutv.com
 



Mark Sweeney (www.aimpointgolf.com)
Jon Hardesty
TJ Yeaton (www.tjyeaton.com)
Dan Carraher aka iteachgolf (http://dancarrahergolf.com/)
Justin Blazer (www.faldogolfinstitute.com)
Ricky Lee Potts (www.rickyleepotts.com)

A lot of great golfing minds there to share their ideas and thoughts. And we don’t bite, either.
I will be going to the actual show on Saturday as I have to work my ‘real job’ Thursday and Friday. I plan on making it a full day event getting all of the information and pictures on all of the products I’m interested in.

I will also be on hand to answer any questions with regards to the numbers behind the game and my work I’ve done in 2012 Pro Golf Synopsis. If you want to purchase the e-book at the show, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at Richie3Jack@yahoo.com and we can discuss meeting up and talking about it. I also *might* be doing a radio interview discussing 2012 PGS because if there’s one thing I have in life, it’s a face for radio.

It should be a lot of fun as it is every year. Hopefully, the weather will participate.





3JACK

3 comments:

Biggi and Liz the wiz said...

Nothing new in the launch monitor business? No price reductions or anything?

Rich H. said...

FlightScope's new X2 model is getting rave reviews. It costs $11K. Other than that, the issue is more with club data accuracy.

Biggi and Liz the wiz said...

TrackmanIII, FlightScope X2 and Foresight's GC2 with HM2 all seem to be in the same ballpark and info(even though the GC2 isn't radar). I was hoping the competion would bring the price down.